CHAPTER VI 
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS OF PLANTS 
“Pale primroses 
That die unmarried.’—Shakespeare 
6¢y OVE consumes the plants” once wrote 
Linnaeus, and the observation of every 
student of Nature goes to confirm his state- 
ment. The plants marry and are given in mar- 
riage. Reproduction is undoubtedly their chief 
end in life. 
The simplest and most primitive plants have 
no sex but produce new individuals by split- 
ting their single cells in two. It is in the thread- 
like bodies of Pond Weeds that we find the 
first beginnings of the principle of generation 
by union. These lowly creatures consist of sin- 
gle cells strung end to end like beads in a neck- 
lace. When two of the living chains happen 
to find themselves parallel to each other, cer- 
tain of the cells reach out and join those op- 
posite them to form new cells. Such a mixture 
of life forces is always beneficial to the race. 
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